Some things are better left unread – here’s why you need to ditch the office email

Email can feel like a quick, modern form of communication, but in reality it could not be more outdated. In the world of business, we’ve been using this same format for decades.

And now the wear marks are starting to show.

Sure, email is easy enough to use.

It has its advantages. But the conversations can become overwhelming and outdated within minutes.

Read more: City watchdog boss apologises for anti-Brexit email gaffe

For a long time, we’ve come to accept the faults and challenges of email in the workplace, but just because it’s familiar doesn’t mean we should continue to embrace this status quo.

A clear majority of us don’t even work at desks in the traditional sense – 80 per cent of the global workforce do more physical or “deskless” work on a daily basis.

More efficient, collaborative, and mobile-first methods are out there, and they’re bringing huge benefits to those companies which are ambitious enough to embrace them.

Soup’s you sir

Take soup company, Campbell’s, for example. Based on feedback from an internal employee survey, Campbell’s realised it needed to modernise its communication to reach employees in new ways.

The staff survey found that only 18 per cent of respondents agreed that internal communications were “timely”.

Deciding that more needed to be done to support employee interactions, Campbell’s invested in a new internal collaboration tool to encourage staff to work together in easier, more modern and inclusive ways that could appeal to everyone within their business.

By bringing in a platform that was simpler to use than email – with functions familiar to those used in their personal lives on social media – staff from across their business were able to share project updates without confusion or slow conversations.

Remote workers began using these functions while on the road. They started using the platform on their mobiles to stay consistently up-to-date with ongoing projects. This quickly helped them feel far more involved, rather than lost outside of office walls.

Food for thought

Other companies are also using this kind of technology to ensure that project development can become more intuitive and less time-consuming.

Even those who spend lots of time on emails can end up hosting large group calls and meetings to collectively discuss what has already been shared within inboxes.

Taking a new approach might seem like a step away from the traditional and the familiar. However, more businesses are finding that using social media-style platforms prevents employees from having the same discussions over and over again.

These platforms can also have some useful functions, such as giving staff one simple location to post their meeting minutes and gather feedback.

Winding email trails disappear, and everyone is in the loop, regardless of where or how they were working.

Outside the inbox

Email has its part to play, but businesses now have an array of options available, meaning they can stop relying on one format of collaboration.

This is becoming increasingly important, particularly for the sake of the global majority of workers who don’t always sit at desks or rely on checking every email in their inbox. Some workers are so swamped by the volume of emails that they simply can’t check them all.

Read more: Email to the Independent Group

Over the last decade, social media has transformed our personal lives, making the art of keeping in touch with friends and family a far more flexible experience.

It’s time for us to embrace its strengths for the business world.